Google Voice, other services soon in Google Apps

Google Voice could be very interesting to current Google Apps users.
Screenshot by Jessica Dolcourt/CNET

Google Apps customers are about to get a lot more options as part of their accounts, including one very interesting feature: Google Voice.

Google plans to announce today that it's adding several other Google services--more than 60 different Google services in total--to Google Apps accounts maintained by businesses and educational customers, which already include Google Docs, Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Sites. On a sour note, Google doesn't plan on extending its service-level agreements with Google Apps customers to cover the new services, and all customers will have to transfer their accounts to a new system to make way for the new applications.

Still, the move will allow Google's business customers to experiment with the new services, and the addition of Google Voice might be the most intriguing to smaller businesses that aren't crazy about paying regular landline fees. Customers will have access to a control panel where they can turn features on and off as needed for their organizations.

Google also will announce plans to rebrand the Apps suite of products. Instead of Google Apps Standard and Premium editions, the company will now call its free option Google Apps, and the paid-support option Google Apps for Business. It will still separately offer Google Apps for Government and Google Apps for Education for those particular types of customers.